A Fair Wage for Your Cup of Tea?

After water tea is the most popular drink in the world and 70,000 cups of tea are drunk a second. In fact global prices for tea are at historically high levels, however, the prices paid to producers are barely level or even below what they were 30 years ago.

So who makes money from your cup of tea?

53% Retailer (e.g. supermarket)
33% Blender (e.g. Tetley)
7% Factory
6% Trader/buying agent
1% Tea auction/broker
<1% Tea picker

A tea worker receives just 1p for each £1.60 box of tea bags sold in a British supermarket

(Source: War on Want, ‘A Bitter Cup – The exploitation of tea workers in India and Kenya supplying British supermarkets’ July 2010)